It is one of the privileges of local government that you get to work with colleagues who so naturally fit their roles it is impossible to imagine them doing anything else.
When you get that perfect match of person and vocation then the magic really happens.
Professor Kate Ardern, who earlier this month retired from being a director of public health in Wigan, is one such public servant.
Early in her medical career Prof Ardern knew she wanted to be a public health practitioner – and she has lived and breathed it ever since.
As a director of public health, she has been at the vanguard of demonstrating the crucial role councils have in our health system.
In Wigan, she was one of the original team that articulated and delivered the Wigan Deal approach to health, which changed the role of the council from ‘doing to’, to ‘doing with’, citizens.
Prof Ardern’s career in health began after she studied medicine at the University of Manchester and graduated in 1986. She initially worked in acute settings, but experienced an epiphany after helping save a man’s life after he had a heart attack. She realised that, although he survived, his life expectancy was reduced.
Prof Ardern researched more about public health and found this was where her passion was – in preventing illness and promoting health and wellbeing.
An inspiring figure for her at the time was Sir Donald Acheson, who took a radical approach to addressing health inequalities. His report in 1989 restored public health as a national priority and re-established the role of the director of public health, saying they should be ‘the champion of the people’.
Having found her vocation, Prof Ardern became a specialist registrar in public health for the Stockport Health Authority in 1990.
It was during this time that she first became involved in influencing national policies by establishing the country’s first full health impact assessment to mitigate the impact of Manchester Airport’s second runway.
Her next role saw her become the country’s first consultant in health protection based in Merseyside and then followed roles in South Liverpool Primary Care Trust and the Cheshire Strategic Health Authority.
In 2008 Prof Ardern became aware of an opportunity in Wigan.
At the time, Wigan’s public health was struggling with the majority of health stats going in the wrong direction. Prof Ardern took on the challenge and had to battle prevailing fatalistic attitudes to health. She regularly argued against those blaming poor public health on the legacy of the mining industry or being typical of a place like Wigan.
She was part of our health top team, under the leadership of our deputy leader, Cllr Keith Cunliffe, who led the Wigan Deal movement to raise aspirations around improving health and placing people’s hopes and talents as central to good health and good lives.
Prof Ardern led the recruitment of a small army of citizen health champions. This included more than 1,300 health champions with a big focus on reducing cardiovascular disease, more than 200 young people as young health champions, 10,000 dementia friends and 4,000 autism friends.
While many other councils cut their funding to the voluntary and community sectors, we increased it dramatically, investing £13m in community organisations that align to what local people want and need to enable them to feel happy and connected.
This had a direct impact on outcomes, with drops in early deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease and cancer, while healthy life expectancy for men and women, and the numbers of adults being physically active, all increased.
During the pandemic, Prof Ardern not only led our borough’s public health response, but was lead director of public health for health protection and emergency planning for Greater Manchester.
During the evenings she hosted live weekly Facebook question and answer sessions so people had access to reliable advice and facts in the midst of rampant misinformation.
We are all proud of the legacy Prof Ardern is leaving in Wigan after 14 years and her role in the ‘Team Wigan’ approach which enabled that to happen.
She will have more time to pursue her hobbies of wildlife photography and music. She is a huge fan of classical music as well as bands like Blondie.
As she has often said in our strategic management meetings, a good life is about wellbeing, living well and following your passions.
In following her passion for improving people’s health so fully, Prof Ardern has certainly practiced what she preached.
Alison McKenzie-Folan is chief executive of Wigan MBC
@WiganCouncil
